Dozens Of Anti-Racism Protesters Arrested And 21 Officers Injured In Seattle Following Clashes
Updated Jul 26, 2020, 07:28am EDT

Some 45 protesters were arrested in Seattle on Saturday amid the city’s largest anti-racism protest in recent weeks following Trump’s expansion of federal agents to the city, while 21 police officers were wounded in clashes with demonstrators.


Police use pepper spray as non-lethal munitions litter the street during protests in Seattle on July ... [+] GETTY IMAGES

KEY FACTS

Seattle Police made 45 arrests by 10 p.m. on Saturday “in connection with today’s riot for assaults on officers, failure to disperse, and obstruction,” the department said.


It added that 21 officers had been injured, but “most were able to return to duty.”


Demonstrators had gathered at Seattle’s Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill on Saturday afternoon, before marching on Broadway.


Police said that around two hours later at 4 p.m., demonstrators reached the King County Youth Service Center, where some protesters set alight a construction site at the facility.


Officers added that some demonstrators broke windows of buildings along 12th Avenue, and caused damage to the perimeter of the police department’s East Precinct.


Officers say they used “less-lethal” equipment including “OC spray, blast balls, and 40mm sponge rounds,” but say they did not use tear gas.


Saturday’s protests follow clashes between anti-racism protesters and federal agents in nearby Portland, Oregon, after Trump sent in federal officers to crack down on violent crime, angering local officials.



KEY BACKGROUND

Saturday’s protests in Seattle, which were later declared a riot by Seattle Police Department, follow sustained protests in nearby Portland, Oregon, where demonstrators are standing against federal agents sent in by the Trump administration. Trump on Thursday declared that federal officers would be sent into Seattle, among other cities, in an expansion of Operation Legend, which has seen him deploy federal agents to crack down on violent crime as anti-racism protests continue. But the presence of federal agents has angered local officials who accused the President of using excessive force. Anticipating violent clashes this weekend, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said at a press conference on Friday: “I cannot overstate it enough, what is happening is frightening to me...It is frightening that you would use federal agents for political purposes.”
TANGENT

Black militia group NFAC marched through Louisville, Kentucky armed on Saturday, demanding justice for 26-year-old unarmed Black woman Breonna Taylor. Three protesters were taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries after a weapon was accidentally fired.

Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was fatally shot by officers in March after they entered her Louisville home using a “no-knock” warrant. Celebrities including Beyoncé and, most recently, LeBron James, have called for the cops involved in her shooting to be arrested.

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